Monday night training session for age groups of U11’s, U12’s, U13’s, U14’s and U16’s.
I had 3 clients booked in for this training session at the physio room connected to the sports centre of South Dartmoor CC.
The first client came in due to having pain in his left lower leg. I assessed his gait out in the hallway, watching him walk away from me and walk back to me, looking for a limp or anything that could be affecting his walking (which there wasn’t). I then palpated his left leg and compared to the right leg. His left gastrocnemius (calf muscle) was tighter in comparison to his right leg. I decided to give him a soft tissue massage to relieve the tension and increase blood flow to the injured area to aid any tissue healing that needed to proceed. After the massage I performed a soft tissue release to stretch the tight muscle. I also did a quick soft tissue massage on his hamstring (mainly on his bicep femoris) to relieve some tension there. I advised to drink plenty of water to ensure he doesn’t feel dizzy and showed him some calf stretches that he needs to do after training.
The next client was a client I had from the previous week. He came back after having an ultrasound on his Achilles to let me know that there was no damage to his Achilles and the pain is due to his growth. His cartilage has softened, and the Achilles is pulling which is causing the pain. His mother asked if I could apply K-tape to his Achilles again as he felt more comfortable and supported with this on.
My third and final booked client came in from U12’s age group with two injuries. One was an ankle injury which happened 5 weeks ago. I assessed his ankle noticing that there were no swelling present. After assessing I palpated his left ankle and he showed slight irritation when palpating his ATFL (anterior talofibular ligament) stating his pain was a 6-7/10. After palpation I then tested his ROM and compared to his right ankle. His ROM is less than his uninjured side, so I decided to do some light mobilisations on his left ankle to increase his ROM in grade 2 and 3. This didn’t cause any pain, and increased his ROM. His second injury was pain on his right heel (Achilles attachment site on his calcaneus) similar to another client of mine. I referred him to be taken to see a doctor to get a professional’s advice as I didn’t want to cause any further injury due to where the pain is.
After this client I had two more clients stood waiting outside of my room waiting to be seen without an appointment. Luckily I had time to see them both but I did mention that in future they need to message me prior to the training sessions to make sure I have space and time to see them.
The first walk-in client had a quadriceps/groin tenderness/tightness injury. I decided to do a soft tissue massage to relieve the tension and reduce his pain. I then stretched his groin and quad passively with slight resistance. We decided to book him in for this Thursday to make sure I had enough time to see him properly next time.
The second walk-in client had an Achilles injury which happened early today at school. There was no present swelling or bruising, so I performed a soft tissue massage and soft tissue release due to muscle tightness on his right gastrocnemius hoping to relieve the pressure and tension it was causing on his Achilles.